Memento Mori Rosary, Catholic Man's Black & White Stone Rosary

$60.00

Memento Mori ("remember you are mortal") are traditional additions to any rosary or chaplet, a sobering reminder of the brevity of life! Many saints like St Gerard Majella kept one for this purpose, and in this rosary it is represented by a small skull bead attached at the center.

This full-size rosary is made with 8mm white howlite stone beads for the Hail Mary's, and glossy black onyx 10mm beads for the Our Father prayer beads. The beads are all hand-linked with dark silver rosary wire, and the Our Father beads are wire-wrapped to give extra strength where needed most. This rosary is made for years of prayer and is suitable for rugged hands.

The center medal is the well-known Miraculous Medal of Our Lady, and the rosary begins and ends with a radiant style crucifix, both pieces are pewter with a black finish. The radiant crucifix has a burst of radiance behind the figure of Christ, signifying His resurrection, and 3-pointed ends to the arms which represent the Holy Trinity.

The Memento Mori hangs alongside the center. Memento Mori literally means "Remember you must die". The early Puritan settlers were particularly aware of death and fearful of what it might mean, so a Puritan tombstone will often display a Memento Mori intended as a reminder for the living. These death's-heads or skulls may strike us as ghoulish today, but they helped keep the living on the straight and narrow for fear of eternal punishment. In earlier centuries, an educated European might place an actual skull on his desk to keep the idea of death always present in his mind.